Since the establishment of the first European fashion houses in the nineteenth century the male wardrobe has been continually appropriated by the fashion industry to the extent that every masculine garment has made its appearance in the female wardrobe. For the womenswear designer, menswear’s generic shapes are easily refitted and restyled to suit the prevailing fashionable silhouette. This, combined with a wealth of design detail and historical references, provides the cyclical female fashion system with an endless supply of “regular novelty” (Barthes, 2006, p.68). Yet, despite the wealth of inspiration and technique across both male and female clothing, the bias has largely been against menswear, with limited reciprocal benefit. Through an exploration of these concepts I propose to answer the question; how can I use womenswear patternmaking and construction technique to implement change in menswear design?

The Costume Museum of Canada (CMC) is the first of its kind in Canada. It works as a comprehensive repository where Canadian clothing and textile artifacts are collected, preserved, and presented. Traveling exhibits are important to the CMC to present the collection to a wider audience; however, the CMC’s financial limitations restrict how they can support traveling exhibitions. This practicum project addresses the desire of the museum for a facility to stage traveling exhibits by the design of a Traveling Exhibition System (TES) for the CMC. The practicum explores the concepts of cultural communication, narratology and mise-en-scene. It will facilitate Canadian cultural education through the exhibition of CMC’s vast collection of costumes and related accessories in a cost effective and sustainable manner. TES will be an exhibit system that can be set up within existing buildings and spaces. The project offers the possibility for the CMC to generate revenue and to facilitate dissemination of Canadian fashion culture and history regionally and nationally.